The Black Jasmine Case: I will always obey Law translation
by Natsu no Kami
Summary: About L's past and his death from woman's who happened to be in love with him perspective.
1. You are gone

A/N: Uhm, hi? So, I kind of wrote that Death Note story about three or even more years ago, in my first language, Polish, then I posted it here in original language and some people suggested that I should try to translate it, so... here it is. To warn you: this story is focused on L and my original character, I won't recommend it to people who don't like OCs or are raging Light fans ;) Also, most of the fic is something like character study, since I originally wrote it only for the purpose of finding out how I'll manage describing reaction to an important person's death. But don't fear - I added a lot of plot to it while writing and there is a good amount of fluff, as well as many comforting scenes :) I'll be delighted if you'd give it a try!

Also, I'd like to thank TheGov for beta and Lokstar van Hallen for motivation.

* * *

She did not remember any previous situation like that, any other situation in which her mind was so unclear. She felt something was wrong but could not bring herself to any conscious reaction, only tried to ease the overwhelming pain deep inside her chest by stabbing the skin of it with slim fingers, but it was not working at all, and yet she did not know why is she suffering so badly. She did not even realise she was crying until she felt the tears dripping from her chin onto her bare forearms.

Only just then she heard that strange sound. By the fact that she was alone in the room, and that every time she tried to breath in she felt like dying, she realised that the irritating, whistling noises must have been coming from her own lips. For a brief moment she analyzed reactions of her body like it was not related to her at all, and was almost fascinated with her own moans and sobs, for she had never assume she would be able to act in such a pitiful way.

Exactly, it was just impossible… She never felt threatened by such a tragedy for he put so much effort into all those uncountable security measures, even there, in her apartment. Well, in what he called her apartment.

Again, she focused on crying, for it was much more simple than forcing herself to face the truth. Sobbing seemed to be even louder than a while before. She gazed at her fingers that have gone white from being clenched so tightly, but she barely saw them due to her blurred vision. They were moving forward and backward as her chest was raising spasmodically. She came to an unclear realisation that she started to whisper words of denial to herself and that her whispers are turning into loud, heart-rending screams. She did not pay much attention to that as there was no possibility that anyone could hear her. There was no such possibility as the one and the only person to ever pay her an unexpected visit was…

Was…

Was dead.

The very thought, as she finally allowed herself to consider it, made her feel like she was suddenly punched in the stomach, but from the inside. An unhuman moan, that sounded more like it was coming from an injured animal, not from a woman, a spy, a detective or whatever else she was, escaped from her lips, and she bit the inside of her cheek, hard. Her mouth filled with metallic taste of blood, she choked with it and started to cough, still finding it hard to breathe. Tears were coming out of her eyes and her nose, turning her lips wet and with every whimpering breath the salty liquid was spraying from her mouth, and she noticed all of that with sick kind of curiosity.

Yes, she did prefer to concentrate on physical symptoms of her suffering. She was not capable of exposing herself to the pain that was to come with every attempt to consider the consequences of what happened just minutes before.

It took her hours to realise the feeling of emptiness. Not as if they were meeting very often, no, but even though the awareness that never, never again...

* * *

She saw him outside so rarely that in his presence the usual, winter scenery of a park, kept in almost wild, English style, seemed unreal.

He walked beside her, his back slightly hunched like usual. She might told anyone else that it is unhealthy, anyone else but him, as for him it seemed just alright. It was simply one of those things that made him special. He was taking his steps carelessly, almost all the time looking straight ahead, except for those brief moments when he glanced in her direction. That allowed her to take the opportunity and stare at his face as much as possible, though she did it furtively. Not as if she thought she could hide anything from him, yet it was worth a try.

"Hey…", He spoke after a long while of silence. "Shall we have a cake?"

"Hmmm?", She muttered questioningly, blinking her eyes, suddenly interrupted.

"Oh, you know, go somewhere where we can buy some cake and then eat it."

"But of course, there is that place nearby…" She sped up as they approached path that was going down the hill, ashamed by how he almost caught her. Her companion was keeping up with her easily while she was focused on being irritated with herself, and it was no surprise that she did not manage to cover a long distance before she slipped on ice that was covered with the thin layer of snow.

The man by her side offered his arm for support and his action was as quick as thought, even though he did not look as if he was capable of moving so fast. She caught him above his elbow and clinged to him almost desperately in an attempt to regain her balance but the ground was so slippery that she only pulled him with her as she fell. They both slid down the very hill they were trying to climb down just a moment before, and fortunately it was not very sheer.

When they finally stopped, the woman looked at her rather eccentric companion, still holding him by the arm, in the face, and then she started to laugh, and once she realised she did not remember laughing in his presence any time before, her laughter got a whole level louder.

"What is so funny?", he asked in his typical, to-the-point manner, his intonation as serious as always, but his huge eyes were staring at her intensely and she could have sworn that she had never seen him astonished before, yet there he was with a thoroughly surprised look that made her giggle.

"If only you could see your face!" she said, holding back the urge to burst out laughing again which would make her pronouncement inarticulate.

And just then something incredible happened. The man smiled slightly, and his smile was so nice and charming that she was sure she had never seen anything more adorable.

* * *

Never again would she see the smile she fell in love with the first time she saw it. She clenched her teeth as her body shook from the next sob. She slumped down from the armchair onto the wooden floor where she curled up into a ball. She grabbed her hair and clenched her fists, which caused pain, but the physical pain helped her to bear with the feeling of emptiness. She cried out when she realised that his beautiful smile, a smile of a person who percieved the world as it was and still found some reasons to be pleased, was not the only memory to make her heart break. His face, which was not memorized by a single photograph…

* * *

She was very young at the time, only twenty years old, and, looking at it in retrospect, really careless. Despite that, she was considered a genius since she was very little, and she had every possibility provided to develop quicker than others. Which follows, the people who took care of her as soon as they discovered her when she was just a child, offered her a job. And they just happened to be very important people.

It was the very first investigation she was participating in in her career, and her job was to analyze materials collected by other FBI agents out in the field. That day was different though, as she was asked to take some documents to the headquarters. She got the feeling that her boss wants to show her she is nothing special at all, but it was not disturbing her, quite the contrary - she was pleased with the possibility of doing anything else than sitting at the desk.

She was told that there would be nobody inside the building as it was already late, so she felt at ease even though she was sure that her every step is recorded by security cameras. The only thing she had to do was leaving the file that she carried with her in an archive at the third floor, and so she used the elevator.

As soon as she entered the corridor, she hesitated. To her great surprise, she seemed not to be able to remember whether she was to choose the door on the left, or on the right, and she assumed that repeating the same actions for past several weeks was to be blamed. After a moment of thinking she decided that it was the left side, so she held the dossier to her chest and opened the door.

She was surprised to find out that the lights were on but soon she realised why it was so. There were no signs of shelves used to store the files, instead of them there was just an armchair turned back from the entrance, and behind the back of the chair she could see dark hair and a pair of huge, dark eyes, staring at her in a sort of disbelief showing behind impassive look.

The eyes blinked.

The girl unconsciously stepped forward. The door shut behind her, making a noise.

"Stop.", A calm, resonant voice sounded. Paradoxically, when she heard it she gave in to the urge to walk forward and get closer to the stranger.

Huge eyes blinked once again, this time the disbelief more apparent.

"Hey, are you deaf?" Apparently intrigued, he leaned out so that she saw his lips. His, as she was sure that the face she was seeing was a face of a man, about her age. It was her turn to blink several times, when she suddenly stopped, even though just a second before she was stepping forward like she got hypnotized.

"Oh, I apologize…" She mumbled, feeling heat rushing to her cheeks.

"Do you realise that you should have never, ever seen me?" The face hid behind the back of the chair again, finally allowing her to focus on her surroundings and realise that the wall she was facing was covered with monitors. "Maybe I should get you silent forever without hesitation?"

Even though she knew she should disappear as soon as possible, his words did not frighten her at all, and even when he was posing a dead threat on her, she still wanted to look in those huge, black eyes really badly.

"I'm sorry… L, right?" She spoke with quite absent voice. She did not even realise who was she talking to before she said it out loud. He passed it over with silence. "I just thought that you are so… beautiful."

She said only truth, for before he broke their eye contact there was nothing to make her face away from him. For a moment the room filled with silence.

"Come closer and see with your own eyes if I am that beautiful." When he finally spoke, his voice was indifferent. Well, he did not even react when she said something so unexpected. She was yet to learn that L expected everything.

She could not let such an opportunity go by. She approached him quickly, almost too quickly, and stood in front of his armchair. The man was sitting slightly hunched, with his legs pressed to his chest. He tilted his head a bit to the side and stared at her constantly, but somehow it did not feel awkward.

She was right, he was beautiful, at least for someone who liked uncommonness. Milky white skin made a sharp contrast to raven black hair nonchalantly falling all around his face. His eyes, also black, had dark shadows under them but were not swollen and that made them look even bigger, getting an effect that was usually achieved by using eyeliner. The thought almost made her smile, but she kept observing. He had full lips and pressed one of his long, slim fingers to his lower lip. He looked her in the face, not avoiding eye-contact even though it lasted longer that it would be comfortable for normal people. His gaze was deep and penetrating, and that was a moment when she felt shiver going down her spine as she realised she was facing world's most successful detective, and probably the most intelligent person in known history. She lost her words for a moment when she felt respect for him fully for the first time.

"I didn't lie." She said in soft, trembling voice that sounded like belonged to someone else.

L did not face away, he just nibbled at his finger like he was wondering what to do with her.

"To start with, why you are here?" Finally, he decided to break the silence. "I am ninety eight coma seven percent sure that you are someone form FBI but I want you to explain it."

She nodded her head, still staring at him so intensely that it was almost rude.

"I was carrying some files to the archive and I messed up the doors."

He lowered his eyes for a moment, moving his finger to the side of his lips, and he looked back at her again.

"Well, what is done, is done. Say it again and I'll give you a blueberry." Saying that, he leaned forward to the table in front of his chair.

She looked there to see that he putting a spoon in a bowl full of sweetened, black fruits. She raised her eyebrow.

"I messed up the doors?"

In silence, he held a single berry in two fingers and moved it to her hand. She took it almost automatically.

"Before that."

Firstly, she raised the fruit to her mouth. It was already sweet and in addition the dark-haired man added lot of sugar to it. She was surprised that she still found it tasty.

"I was carrying some files...?"

That time, he took two berries, using both of his hands, and placed them on her hand, which she extended, already knowing what to expect.

"It's still not what I mean."

She ate her 'prize' quickly, trying to understand what was the whole game about. It took her just a second to realise.

"You are beautiful." The words seemed to hang in the air between them for a moment in which the girl tried to figure out what the detective was thinking, and failed miserably.

"Hold out your hands."

She did as he requested, and he picked up his bowl and tilted it. Little, dark fruits poured out upon the agent's hands.

The dark-haired young man leaned and lifted a carton of cream that was prepared on the table. He began to pour it into the bowl, and at the same time filling the spoon that he held above. When he finished, he raised the spoon to the woman's lips. She was staring at him with awe.

"Eat it with cream, it's even better."

Astonished, she allowed the spoon to go past her lips, licked it's contents and then swallowed, while L started to eat his dessert. During that action, he also began to speak.

"For you've already seen me, I would like to invite you to help me directly. Knowing you lack experience, I still have a feeling that you may have pretty good instinct as you recognized me so quickly." His fingers moved briefly upon the keyboard and in no time her full profile was projected on every monitor. Well, at least she did not have to wonder why he knew that she was not experienced. "That is so only if you are not here in an suicidal attempt to kill me, of course."

She licked the sugar off of her fingers.

"Mind giving me more cream? And, I get that you are not suspecting me anymore?"

L offered her another spoonful of cream and after she ate it he pointed at the monitor.

"Knowing that, I am not."

She nodded her head, licking the cream from her upper lip.

"But you'll keep an eye on me constantly?"

"That is correct, at least until I will finish the investigation and leave this place. Finding me will be impossible then, and sole memory of my face is useless to anyone who would attempt to pose a threat on me, especially since you show no talents in drawing, according to all the data. Unfortunately, you could have took a photo of me with some hidden camera."

She decided to try to make him smile as she found it strange that all the sweet things he has done did not match his seriousness to the point that she could hardly believe it is honest.

"I'd love to do this. As I already mentioned, you are beautiful."

He raised his palm to his lips once again, keeping a straight face. The concentration was visible only in his dark eyes.

"I can not allow it, so I will ask you to move to that room." He pointed at the door on the right side of the room. "You will then leave everything that you wear and carry with you, the dossier included, on the floor inside it. Next, you will open the second door in the room and you will find a wardrobe with my clothes inside it. Pick anything you find suitable, wear it, and return here."

"Will you watch me?" The girl frowned.

"Not me, Watari will take care of that, and you will most probably never meet him. Except that, we are professionals after all, plus I did not ask you to undress in my presence, so stop arguing, please."

Knowing she had no other option, she obeyed.

* * *

His face was surely the most beautiful thing she saw in her entire life, and awareness of the fact that the picture of it inside her head would eventually vanish took her breath away. She punched the leg of the table beside her and the impact tore the skin of her hand. She cried out again, but not from pain, at least not that caused by the cut.

She stood unsteadily and dragged herself to the bathroom so that she could dress the wound, even though she did not know why she would even bother at the first place.

She washed the blood away with water, cold, as she attempted to stop the bleeding, all the time shaking from her weeping.

When she used the soap, it smelled like strawberries.


	2. Along with the touch

Her cooperation with L did not end after that first case, though it was the only time when she had to wear his clothes, that were too big for her, but only a bit, since he was skinny. Despite the fact that he was constantly eating sweets and he did not pay any attention to healthy diet, he looked almost pathologically thin.

They spend days and nights sitting in front of computers, analyzing data, finding traces, and deciding on matters crucial to the cases they were solving. Unlike L, the girl did not suffer from insomnia, so she was able to work mostly during the day. There was always a bed prepared for her, so that she could sleep when she had no more energy to accompany L, who nearly never rested.

The dark-haired detective, who was starting to trust her more and more, sometimes even delegated her to work in field and gather intelligence, though he always made sure she was completely safe. With them on guard every investigation was easier, and they were solving the cases in record time. She was slowly adapting to constant presence of the young man, who invariably kept awaking her admiration. However, adjusting to unusual situations was easy for her, and she knew that only effective work could make her be able to stay by his side. That made her push any romantic plot that came to her mind aside, to the point she had almost forgotten she was attracted to him in any way other than intellectual. In return, he entrusted her with responsibilities and treated her not as his apprentice, but as an equal partner.

Even though she tried to eat standard meals every day, the inseparable part of working with L were the sweets that he used to devour and was willing to share with her, which she could not deny, recognizing it as a display of attention. Every day, he offered to share his food and was expecting her to say or do something that appeared to make no sense in return. At least once a day she was telling him he was beautiful, and in exchange she was given…

Amazing delicacies, sheer masterpieces of confectioners from all around the world. L treated her to pieces of excellent Swiss chocolate, intricately fused together with multiple perfectly composed additionals, exotic fruits, fresh, dried or sugared, which were attracting her eyes with colours as juicy as they were themselves, creamy pastries prepared skillfully in order to make their intriguing taste melt in her mouth or, on the contrary, those that crumbled in her teeth, leaving a pleasurable, rough feeling behind. L's famous sweet tooth allowed her also to taste ice-creams in flavours that would be hard to find even in confectionery in Tuscany or Provence.

L claimed that all the calories he was absorbing were consumed by his extremely powerful brain while she was not so lucky, but every time she felt exhausted with all the mental work, she took a break and dedicated it to an intense physical training, knowing that it would bring back clearness of her though, and ward off the risk of putting on weight. In those cases, that occurred at least twice a day, L sometimes allowed it to disrupt his work and watched her, even more rarely deciding to take part in her workout by proposing a sparing. On several occasions he even offered to let her have his entire dessert if she could defeat him in a fight, but even though she was acquainted to probably all techniques that were ever invented and was as physically strong as it was possible for a woman of rather small build, she had never manage to win the bet as the detective was fast and agile at a level unreachable for ordinary human beings.

After such an intense day she slept for eight hours like a child, always waking up refreshed and full of enthusiasm for work with the best detective in the world.

Their arrangement was perfect, with both of them dedicated to work and challenges, reaching their goals faster together. What was more, they even found time for entertainment as they were playing to win the candies or pretended to fight, and their mutual company was not boring to them at all. The girl, despite she saw L as beautiful all the time and nothing could reduce her admiration for him, was completely fulfilled in that kind of relationship. Her superior was an extraordinary person in a way that, even if only for her, deflated the importance of regular emotions, and she was absolutely happy.

It was so until the FBI, with quite an amount of executives delighted by her long-term cooperation with the L himself, offered her a position which would leave her in charge for an important structure. That was when L, as he appeared to be her inseparable companion, advised her to accept the offer and for several years disappeared from her life, taking the fight-caused bruises and the exotic, sweet aftertaste in her mouth with him.

* * *

The women hunched her back, clinging to the wash-basin. She clenched her fingers as forcefully as if she wanted to crush the cool porcelain with her bare hands. The coldness of that object made her burst out with hater, because from her perspective the entire world should have been mourning after L's death.

The tears dripped on her trembling hands as she realised the world would never notice missing it's most fierce detective and even for the few people who knew him in person, it might take long time to claim the knowledge of the fact.

And yet, he used to be there, used to real, really did exist once! How unfair was it that he was to be forgotten, that he was to become nothing more than a conspiracy theory which shall not be believed in! He, who deserved all the admiration, yet was not to be given as little as the remembrance. She herself was to be excluded from the society with her pain since no one was to show her compassion as no one was to realise there was any reason for it.

But he, L, had existed! He touched even that detested wash-basin if it was the matter! He touched a lot of objects in her apartment, and that had to be real! He touched… He touched…

Her…

* * *

She met him again when they happened to work on the same case. Her team was leading the investigation, but they were told that L got interested in the case and arrived. No one sane would ever refuse to work with him, especially her.

L was somewhere nearby, but only spoke with them using communicator which damaged his charming, gentle voice by modifying it so that it could not be recognized, and the fact almost made her sick, even if she stayed professional.

All of the people in her team were aware that she and L worked together for several years, not a single person supposed that she had ever seen him, though. One of her major responsibilities was to make sure none of her subordinates, and most of her superiors in addition, would even think she had ever met him in person. The existence of someone who would be known to meet L was unacceptable.

He did not make her wait for too long, only two days, for him to request that someone brought several documents to a building in the city center. She used the fact that they were working in Washington, and she knew the city well, as an excuse to do it herself, even though sending someone else would be more natural. After she declared to take care of the matter, the voice from her computer gave more instructions.

"The archive. Fifth floor. And remember, the door on the right side."

Few hours later, when she stepped out of the elevator and entered the corridor, she took a deep breath and opened the door to the left.

The room seemed so familiar to her, just like all the others they were working in, even if situated in different buildings all around the world. She shivered at the view of an armchair turned back to her and the black hair that was visible behind it's back.

Familiar, intense look meet her eyes and for a long while both of them seemed to be incapable of facing away from each other.

"L…" finally she moaned, feeling weak at the knees. She was so sure she would never see him again that the relief almost took away her balance.

The detective smiled at her briefly with his warm smile and then pushed some button. All the monitors in the room turned white, with big letter 'W' on each of them.

"Watari? I need an armchair, two teacups, one sugar bowl, the last two preferably full, some clothes, and all the sweets you can provide." he said it in one breath, keeping his voice indifferent, and then ended the call.

"I… think I should sit." she sighed.

"But the chair for you…" L turned to face her, only to see her sitting on the floor, deathly pale. His eyes widened in surprise from such an uncommon behaviour.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Nothing at all." Her voice was almost as neutral as L's, and the pose, with her legs pressed to her chest, also resembled him.

"Are you sure? You look kind of…" Before he was able to finish the sentence, the door opened and Watari, wearing his usual formal suit, entered. He pushed a trolley with sweets in front of him, had a bag hanging from his arm, and two man carrying an armchair followed him.

Watari smiled at the women, who was still sitting on the floor, with his cheerful smile that always gave him kind, soothing look. Well, despite of what L said when they met for the first time, she did meet Watari.

"I see you are back?"

"Oh yes, I am." she said weakly. She did not expect reacting like that to the unchanged L, the room that was so alike all the others they had ever worked in, and his behaviour that seemed like they were separated for just few hours. Few hours, not long three years during which her career developed and she grew out of being a lost girl who accidentally stepped into the greatest detective's of all time office.

"I guess that by bringing here all those documents your guest earned a piece of cake, right?" Watari addressed L.

Even that old game did not change! For the first time ever she felt close to losing consciousness.

L stared at her with his penetrating gaze and she thought for a moment that he was really wondering if she deserved the prize, but soon enough he nodded his head.

It took just a moment for the older man to crouch beside her and offer her some sugared fruits and a plate with a piece of fruit cake on it.

"There, there, a little of sugar and everything will be alright, isn't that so?" He muttered soothingly, with his usual manner of addressing her and L like he was talking to children. She knew that he was right about the sugar, though, and had not really minded it anyway, so she forced herself to swallow some fruits and, feeling slightly better, ate the whole piece of cake.

"Are you able to work already?" L spoke, turning to them. Only when the sound of his fingers moving on the keyboard ceased, she realised that she heard it in the first place. The men who were carrying the armchair had already left.

"Yes." She stood up and smiled a little, her enthusiasm growing once again.

"Splendid." L turned back to the monitor, allowing her to admire his messy hairstyle. "Change to what Watari prepared for you, that skirt of yours is highly improper as I can assure you we will be working kind of hard. You are for sure going to workout for relax in a while, as you have it in habit."

At this words, she realised t she did not change a lot, too, in fact. It was L who formed her at the very beginning after all, and she doubted it could ever change anyway.

Neverminding the detective, she changed her clothes to loose yoga pants and a tight top Watari brought for her. From what she wore, she left only the underwear, which was lace and L would probably also find it improper, if only he turned his face from the computer and actually looked at her. Though he never did that so she was safe.

They found their standard rhythm of working together just like they had never lost it. Her team members were told that personal reasons forced her to abandon them and there was a replacement provided.

But not everything was the same as their chairs seemed to be placed closer to one another and they were glancing at each other more often.

"What do I do to get some cake?" She found the courage to ask around noon, during the third day since their reunion, just because exchanging scrutinizing glances was distracting her way too much.

"Have I changed?" He reached for a fork with his right hand and then started to cut a little piece from his portion of a strawberry cake.

"No, you are still beautiful." She thought she immediately understood his intention, but he was not pleased with the answer. The fork with a piece of cake on it hanged halfway between her face and L's.

The man smiled and made a gesture suggesting he could eat the cake as well as he could offer it to her, and then he spoke again.

"Why have you, then?"

She frowned with consternation.

"Don't you like me anymore? If that's the matter, I supposed I got more effective and grown up, and that you'd like, wouldn't you? Besides, I'm also prettier…"

The last part was meant as a joke, though she did not suppose it would have any effect on L.

"That is certainly not the matter." L interrupted her in the middle of sentence, shortening the distance between his lips and the piece of cake by leaning forward. Apparently, monologues were not the desired reaction to the detective's questions.

"What is then?" She felt unsure of what was happening. Having turned away from her computer, she was sitting with her whole body turned in L's direction. To make that possible she had to bend her left knee and lay her leg on the armchair. She was staring at him with almost equal intensity as he did at her.

"Your appearance did not change very much, you are about five and a half feet tall, weigh about one hundred and twenty pounds, have light brown hair, though it got a bit darker than before, got a bit curly and you let it hang loose, unlike three years ago. Your eyes are still green, or maybe I should say something like both green and golden? That sounds pretty enough. I do not mean the way you look, though, but the fact you never dared to even look at me if I didn't suggest that you should. Why would you do it now?"

"Time to answer frankly?" As usual, she was nearly hypnotized by L's black eyes.

"If you can do it, I will give you what you asked for." The detective, with his usual seriousness, leaned forward even more, getting closer to the cake, and to her as well.

She did not want to explain what was attracting her so much, so for a moment she could not decide what to say.

"Can't you deduce it by yourself?" Finally she surrendered, though challenged him at the same time.

"Surely I can." He stuffed the cake in his mouth and before he swallowed it, he started to speak. "You have almost fell on the ground the moment you entered this room, you are surprisingly cheerful, but still you're disturbing our work even if previously you seemed to know it's not the right thing to do. You have missed me and you don't want us to be separated too quickly."

She frowned again when he did not turned away immediately, and instead waited for her reaction.

"You're right, as always. It's my turn though." She took a deep breath, still looking him in the eyes. "You made them place those armchairs at half of the usual distance, so we are sitting only about three feet from each other, you don't break off conversations even though you don't seem to have anything more to add. Yesterday you didn't look through that new file with evidences we received; you saved it somewhere and didn't touched it since. So you've missed me too… and you don't want to send me away from here again at all."

"I have never sent you away from anywhere." L pursed his lips a little and when she focused on the image he made, he put a strawberry, covered with whipped cream, into her mouth. " But except that little detail, you are absolutely right. I am glad to see you improved so much. You deserve the prize."

She chewed it and swallowed, then faked a smile in the way which left him no space for having doubts if it was faked.

"The best prize would be to tell me we're not going to separate after all, especially now, when you confessed you don't want it just like me."

He did not answer, just turned back to his computer and returned to work instead. She kept looking at him for a moment more, but he did not face away from the monitor anymore, so she snorted a little and did the same thing, starting to type a request for the records from security cameras in the store in which their main suspect placed some orders online, just in case.

They were silent for a couple of hours, then she decided to stretch a bit, and after a while L shut his laptop and stood up.

"Great." She scowled at him. "I had never felt such an urge to punch you in my life."

In response he spared her a rare friendly smile and beckoned her to come closer.

She launched at him without any warning and avoided kick aimed at her head by crouching suddenly, then responded with a kick at his stomach. It reached him just beside his leg, which he managed to bend in no time. She supported herself with her arm on the floor, but the kick still disturbed her balance. Rolling to the side, she avoided failing, but did not escape from L's counter attack, and so he kicked her thigh painfully. She jumped to her feet with a low growl and after steadying herself, started to watch him carefully. Just to herself, she had to admit she loved moments like that, when she had a good reason to stare at him, admiring him when he was showing just how he looked standing straight, alerted, strong and athletic. Not as if he was not alerted and strong usually, it just was not that visible when he was sitting in his armchair, focused on the case. He was attractive in slightly different way then, and the way to which she had time to accustom, even if only a little.

He let her look for a long moment, and his eyes seemed a little bit sad. Even though they both knew they were not helping themselves that way, as usual they decided to accept the challenge nonetheless.

The women took a few steps to the right, then jumped in the other direction and tried to punch the detective's side. She was attacking in the way supposed to take him by surprise, it was not successful, though. He managed to predict her movement, with good reflexes and intuition, and pushed her away with both his arms. She fell on her back and immediately rolled to the back, then kicked up from her crouch, aiming at her opponent's thigh. She was also quick, so she managed to do it just before he jumped aside. Her unfavourable position disallowed her to bend her leg fast enough, though, so he caught her by the ankle and then pulled, causing her to pass by him without any control over her body and slid on her back upon the floor. Trying to support herself with her palm, she abused the skin and hissed in pain.

She sprang up and desperately tried to attack him again, having no better idea than aiming to knock him over with her own weight. He avoided her, but it was predictable, so she just absorbed the fall with a roll.

Suddenly, to her great surprise, something heavy fell on her. She moaned as she felt the pain from her chest being pressed to the ground and she realised she forgot about the table standing nearby, and when she hit it, she caused it to fall.

She nearly panicked when she could not lift the piece of furniture from underneath it, but in no time it was over. The detective lifted the table and she stood up, rubbing the side of her chest.

"Oh god." She said, sitting on the edge of her chair.

"Are you in need of some medical attention?" L stood beside her, resting his hand near her shoulder.

"No, what are you talking about? It's just… I kind of dropped a table… on myself!"

She giggled, but soon frowned when the movement worsened the pain in her ribs. Her hand wandered to the hurt place once again and the way her lips twisted gave her face a look more suitable for a displeased child.

"Then maybe you will let me check?" The man apparently did not plan to get back to work and decided to take care of his subordinate instead.

She nodded her head after she took some time to consider the possibility.

"Fine. Rest comfortably and lift your arms above your head. Try to relax if you can."

She did as he said, and then almost choked on her breath when L crouched with his feet on both sides of her thighs and raised her top. She was sure the whole action was only some kind of first aid, but still she felt surprised and somehow out of place.

The detective's fingers turned out to be skillful and gentle when he examined her bones under the redden, swollen skin. In fact it was no surprise as she supposed he was so careful with using his hands for some reason, and it could have been making them more sensitive as well as anything else.

"I want to see it a bit higher and it's disturbing me." L muttered. It was an information, not a question, and without asking for her permission, he reached behind her back and undid her bra, the disturbing part of her clothing he mentioned, with one quick movement. Again, she was not surprised with the skill the action showed, apparently skillful hands were just one more thing that made him L.

"Hey, you were supposed to relax, were you not?" L reprimanded her with his gentle voice. "I don't want to cause you any unnecessary pain."

That was the moment when she realised she unintentionally tensed her muscles when he loosened her underwear, so she took a deep breath and relaxed a bit. The man moved his fingers up her body, where the blow must had been strengthened by the bone of her bra as she inhaled loudly with pain at his touch.

"I guess you will be fine." He spoke as he pressed the bones under her skin, which apparently were on their places, for the last time. "A bandage would be needed, though. Undress, please."

He jumped off the armchair nimbly, and then approached the row of cabinets beside one of the walls. While obeying his order, she watched him taking several boxes out of one of the cabinets. Removing her clothes did not take much time since all she had to do was to take off her top and let the underwear slide off of her arms. It was, as always, quite warm in the room for L was never wearing shoes, so she was not attacked by a sudden chill and could focus all her attention on her superior's actions. He picked the widest bandage, examined it carefully for some reason and then brought it with him to the chair, in which the female agent was sitting, alongside with a tube of salve.

She thought of how strange it was to see L actually doing something by himself.

"Could you, please, raise your hands?", he spoke gently.

She hesitated for a brief moment, but then obediently took her arms off of the naked skin she protected from being seen and placed them above her head in a parody of a relaxed pose.

L did not stare at her, even though she supposed most men would do so, he posed his intense gaze on her eyes instead, putting some salve on her abused skin at the same time. As he started to rub it into her body with slow, circular motion, she could not endure his piercing stare and closed her eyes, trying with all that she had to control her breathing so that she would not blush. The detective's slender fingers radiated with heat, and it took her a while to realise that it was caused by the warming up balm.

After several minutes, in which L continued his massage, not interrupted even by the need to apply more of the salve since he was capable of doing it with only one hand, she decided to open her eyes and, to her great surprise, found the detective's beautiful eyes shut. She spent several following minutes admiring the calm, relaxed look on his face, while he rubbed the balm into her skin, preventing swelling and pain that would with no doubt occur otherwise.

There was no warning before L opened his eyes, and when he caught her staring, the smile he sent her was wider than the usual, almost unnoticeable twist of his lips. He removed his fingers from her skin on instant.

"Straighten up, please."

When she did so, she suddenly found herself awkwardly close to L, but that time she could not really say that she minded. She felt the detective would never cause her any harm and it was all it took for her to calm down.

The man's raven dark hair fell down his face as he cocked his head to figure out where exactly he should put the bandage he prepared. He coiled her chest with it quickly and efficiently, as if he have been doing it all his life, and she was pretty sure that he practiced it about once, on some first aid class years before.

Once he finished, he secured the material on her body and offered a hand to the quite shocked, and extremely relaxed, women.

"Up?" he said with one more smile, something she would never expect, but was glad to mimic. With a little help she stood up and, when asked, slowly raised and lowered back her arms. The bandage did not disturb her breathing. Only then she put her top back on and glanced at the man, who was still observing her.

"Why did you do that? Why didn't you ask Watari?"

He easily endured her look.

"You felt an urge to punch me, and I felt an urge to calm you down. Of course, I felt it after you got hit by the table." Once more hint of a smile slipped past his features and she froze with awe.

"L…", she muttered, looking straight into his huge, beautiful eyes.

"Let's get back to work." He returned her gaze steadily as always, then gently gripped her by an arm and set her down in her chair, in front of the computer and all the other equipment.

When she looked at him again, he was sitting with his intense gaze locked with bright monitor, his legs pressed against his chest, and two fingers playing with his lips, on which for one crazy moment she wanted to place a kiss.


End file.
